A new use for the ISS |
A new use for the ISS |
Jul 12 2008, 10:25 PM
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#1
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
I know there's about as much chance of this happening as there is of Keira Knightley ringing me up and asking me to show her the stars on the next clear night, but what a wonderful, wonderful idea...
Moving the ISS -------------------- |
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Jul 14 2008, 01:15 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 214 Joined: 30-December 05 Member No.: 628 |
If you are going to start imagining different configurations into which to rearrange the ISS modules, you could also spin off one or two and send them to orbit the moon. I don't know exactly what the point would be, but it would establish a permanent base out there a lot sooner than we could build one on the surface. It would also facilitate the colonization of the surface. Then the space shuttle fleet, no longer safe for taking off and landing, could be boosted to orbit one last time, stripped of their no-longer-neeeded wings, and put to work shuttling back and forth between the ISS and the lunar station. I suspect the shuttles would be much easier to convert into long-distance craft than the ISS itself. The objective isn't really to save money, because these ideas presuppose a major scaleup in the whole space program. If that were to happen (for some still hard-to-imagine reason), then we might as well redeploy our existing resources before fabricating new ones. I wouldn't have put all the effort into the shuttle and ISS programs in the first place if I could have magically reallocated those resources to UMSF activities, but now it's a sunk cost and we should make darn sure not to throw these assets away. Right?
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